* 



till- 

THE 



Good of the O 



SERIES OF PRACTICAL ARTICLES REL- 
ATIVE TO THE WORKING OF GOOD 
TEMPLAR LODGES. 



/ BY 

S. B. tHASE, P.R.W.G.T., 

of the R. W. G. Lodge of North America. 







/ 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 

J. C. GARRIGUES & CO., 

608 Arch Street, Philadelphia. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

S. B. CHASE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers, Philada. 



INTRODUCTION. 



To all Good Templars : 

The following articles were prepared while the 
author was " on the wing," in the discharge of the 
duties of G. W. C. T. of Pennsylvania, and first 
published in the Keystone Good Te7nplar, the offi- 
cial organ of the Grand Lodge. Written at depots 
while waiting for trains, with our hat for a writing- 
desk, and here and there as we could catch a few 
moments of leisure, there was no time or oppor- 
tunity to revise or elaborate, so as to make them as 
readable as we could wish. They were intended as 
practical, and no attempt was made at embellish- 
ment. 

The interest taken in these articles by many of 
our members, and pains taken by many Lodges to 
file the numbers of the paper containing them, and 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

of others to place them in scrap-books for future 
reference, induced their publication in book form. 
Hoping good may come from the circulation of 
« The Good of the Order," 
I remain, 

In F., H. and C, 

S. B. CHASE, 

P. R. W. G. T. 
Great Bend Village, May 2, 1870. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. page 

Discipline 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Discipline. — Continued 12 

CHAPTER III. 
Influence. — How to make Lodge meetings interesting. 17 

CHAPTER IV. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Order. . . 22 

CHAPTER V. 
Punctuality, promptness, despatch in the transaction 
of business 27 

CHAPTER VI. 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Readiness 
to discharge duty. — Exercises under the head of 
" Good of the Order." — Personal duty 33 

CHAPTER VII. 
How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — News- 
papers, music, etc 41 

1* 5 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. page 

How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Regular 
attendance of the members necessary 48 

CHAPTER IX. 
How to make Lodge meetings interesting. — Outside 
work. — Public meetings 53 

CHAPTER X. 
Difficulties in Lodges. — What causes them and the 
results. — Why Lodges fail • 59 

CHAPTER XL 

Delinquent Lodges. — Damaging influence of getting 
in arrears, both upon members and Lodges 69 

CHAPTER XII. 
Our unwritten work. — Its importance, use, disuse and 
abuse. . . 76 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Good Templars' obligation. — What it means. — 
Good Templars should not frequent dram-shops. . . 81 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The rights, privileges and duties of deputies 85 

CHAPTER XV. 
Correspondence 93 



THI 



GOOD OF THE ORDER. 



CHAPTER I. 



DISCIPLINE. 



THERE is no feature of the Good Tem- 
plars' work which should be so marked 
with care and charity as the discipline of way- 
ward members ; and yet many of our Lodges 
act as though the great end of our organization 
is to get men to join and secure the fees, and 
then put them out as soon as possible. No 
mistake can be greater. 

A minister in the M. E. Church who had 
committed some act censurable under the 
ecclesiastical law at once went to the bishop, 
with a request that he should have immediate 
steps taken to have him disciplined. His 
bishop mildly told him that the object of the 

7 



8 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

Church was not to throw men out, but to in- 
duce them to unite with and stay in the 
Church, and lead lives worthy of church mem- 
bership ; and that he had better go back to his 
charge, and thereafter conduct himself so that 
his case would not require church judicatories. 

So our great object should be to induce per- 
sons to join us and to throw around them such 
influences as shall keep them w T ith us. We 
have been in Lodges where all manner of 
charges were being preferred against A., B. 
and C, and some of a very trivial nature in- 
deed. So far as I could judge, no attempt had 
been made to discipline by mild and persuasive 
means. 

Our Constitution and By-Laws prescribe the 
constitutional or legal mode of procedure in 
cases of violation of obligation ; but it is not 
necessary the constitutional course should be 
pursued in the first instance. A man may 
commit some trespass on his neighbor, for the 
redress of which he has his remedy in a suit 
at law ; but if they be Christian neighbors, it 
would be thought unchristian to resort to his 
suit before any effort had been made at an 
amicable settlement. 

Let us, brothers and sisters, exhaust every 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 9 

mild and charitable means for the restoration 
of violators before resorting to the constitu- 
tional. As soon as it is known or suspected a 
member has been violating the obligation, let 
some member go at once, and, in a friendly 
and fraternal conversation, try to induce such 
member to come into Lodge and state all the 
facts in the case, and, if deemed a violation, be 
re-obligated at once, and submit to such other 
punishment as the Lodge may require. If no 
one will volunteer to do this, let the Lodge 
appoint judicious members and those best 
adapted to such a work for such purpose. 

Generally, accused members led by such in- 
fluences w r ill acknowledge all they have done, 
humbly ask forgiveness of the Lodge, and 
meekly submit to its punishment ; whereas, if 
a written charge is preferred in the first in- 
stance, they think it uncharitable, their pride 
is aroused, and they are prepared to defend 
the charge to the last extremity, and, if finally 
expelled, a large number of friends go with 
them in sympathy, if not in person. 

Again, our Lodges often commit real in- 
justice by following too rigidly the legal course 
as laid down in our Digest, forgetting that 
they are both court and jury to determine 



IO THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

whether the law applies to the particular case 
in hand. 

Take the following instance of discipline, 
where the Lodge supposed it must pursue the 
constitutional course, without exercising any 
judgment as to whether the cases were both 
violations or not. 

A. was charged with drinking sweet cider, 
and, in answer to charge, said he had drunk 
it and would continue to do so when he pleased, 
and the Lodge might help itself. The same 
charge was preferred against B., who, in 
answer, said that, one day while making cider 
(he was a farmer) at the press, he inadvert- 
ently, and without any intention of violating 
his pledge as a Good Templar, drank a very 
small quantity, but, though he regretted the 
act and would not repeat it, he did not con- 
sider that he had violated his obligation, and 
would not be re-obligated. He was a valuable 
temperance man, and, of course, our Order 
needed his aid. 

The result was, the Lodge, in its pursuit of 
a strictly legal course, because both had drunk 
sweet cider, treated both cases alike, and ex- 
pelled them, thus for ever losing the influence 
of B. to our Order. There was no parallel in 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. II 

these cases. A. ought to have been severely 
dealt with, and expulsion was undoubtedly 
proper, because he placed himself in defiance 
of the Lodge and its laws ; but in the other 
case, if the Lodge, knowing the character of 
B., really believed he did it inadvertently and 
would not repeat it, might have passed a vote 
that the act of Bro. B. be considered not a 
violation, and thus saved him. The Lodge 
could not find him guilty and then excuse 
him, because our laws forbid it ; and probably 
the brother would not have remained in the 
Lodge if such a course had been taken. 

Recollect that the law can only be laid 
down in general terms, and that the Lodge, 
being acquainted w T ith the character of the 
members and circumstances attending the par- 
ticular case, is to determine whether the law 
applies to the case or not ; and members 
should act as though they felt this responsi- 
bility, and not forget that one great object 
in discipline is to keep and save, rather than 
turn out and lose. 



CHAPTER II. 

DISCIPLINE. — CONTINUED. 

THE inquiry is often made of me, How 
many times I would re-obligate a mem- 
ber who has violated his obligation ? Briefly, 
I answer, just as many times as such member 
manifests sorrow for the violation and a deter- 
mination to be faithful in the future. Toward 
those who have joined us from pure motives 
and with bona Jide intention to try to reform 
we cannot exercise too much charity ; but, on 
the contrary, when we are satisfied that a 
member under, or who is liable to, charge, 
never joined from laudable motives, nor had 
any sincere desire to keep his obligation, we 
cannot manifest too much despatch in en- 
forcing our discipline. 

Sometimes individuals join us because they 

are sent in by our enemies to spy out our plan 

of operations and bring us into disrepute, and 

thus accomplish on the inside what the most 

12 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 13 

violent opposition on the outside never could 
effect — namely, the dissolution or demoraliza- 
tion of the Lodge. Of course, all such will 
violate the pledge as soon as possible, for in 
no other way can they so effectually bring the 
Lodge into disrepute. The disparaging in- 
fluence of one violation upon a Lodge, what 
human arithmetic can estimate it? 

Generally, members of this class, when an 
attempt is made to discipline them, are very 
obstinate, will interpose every obstacle pos- 
sible, and are ready " to fight it out on this 
line" and defend to the last extremity. Such 
I would not re-obligate, but discipline and sus- 
pend or expel as soon as possible, that the 
wound may not have a chance to spread and 
infect the whole body. Indeed, if you have 
evidence that such came in for the purpose of 
subjecting the Lodge to ridicule or breaking it 
up, I would at once deal with and cut them 
off before they have had time to otherwise 
violate our obligation. 

The re-obligation is administered by the 
W. C. Templar, and in open Lodge. Mem- 
bers have sometimes refused to be re-obligated 
in open Lodge, but have expressed a willing- 
ness to be if it could be done by W. C. T. in 
2 



14 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

private or before a committee. The uniform 
Constitution, sec. 6 of Art. 8, requires it to be 
done openly. See Digest, 7th edition, p. 48. 

Considerable difficulty is experienced from 
our Lodges so often inflicting the penalty of 
expulsion, even for non-payment of dues. Ap- 
plications are frequently made to me for dis- 
pensations to initiate expelled members before 
the expiration of the time required by the 
Constitution, assigning as a reason therefor 
that such person's safety is dependent upon 
his being received again into our organization. 
Of course, there is no power to relieve in 
these cases, as dispensations cannot be granted 
to do an unconstitutional act. Although, under 
the terms of the Uniform Code, now in force 
in this State, only three months must elapse 
before an expelled person can be proposed 
and initiated, still it would be better to simply 
suspend indefinitely, in all cases, for non-pay- 
ment of dues, or for any offence not very 
flagrant, instead of expelling ; as the former 
just as effectually cuts off such disciplined 
members from participation in the meetings 
of the organization, and they occupy a posi- 
tion where the disability can be removed at 
any time by a vote of the Lodge, and their 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 1 5 

former relations to the Order be at once re- 
sumed. As a general rule, in all cases where 
two doors are open through which the goal 
of discipline can be reached, let us walk 
through the one which will the most readily 
fly open when we wish to retrace our steps. 

It appears strange to many that, with all 
the restraining influences surrounding our or- 
ganization, so many who have been addicted 
to the artificial stimulus should be unable to 
keep their obligation of total abstinence. The 
fault is not altogether our failure to discipline 
wisely. It is not altogether because we are 
too M harsh," or because our membership is 
not faithful, though many are lost because we 
do not extend our fraternal sympathies in the 
time of need ; but the great difficulty lies in 
the fact that our members who have been 
slaves of the intoxicating bowl do not abandon 
their old haunts of dissipation and former com- 
panions. The laws of association are such 
that even to enter a place where we have been 
wont to get intoxicating beverages brings back 
the tempter with all his terrible power for 
destruction. The old companions of our vices 
are anxious to pull us along with them, and 
our first attempt to break away from their 



16 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

snares is a signal for all to unite in efforts to 
prevent our escape from the maelstrom of 
death. With my present views, if ever again 
privileged to prepare an obligation for our 
Order, after the present pledge, I would add, 
"And you also promise for ever to abandon 
all your old associates and all places where 
intoxicating beverages are sold" This would 
strike a key-note that would lead our brothers 
to a successful reformation. 



CHAPTER III. 

INFLUENCE. — HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEET- 
INGS INTERESTING. 

GOOD TEMPLARS are reputed to be a 
working temperance organization ; and 
hence we are expected to occupy advanced 
ground on all questions connected with the 
temperance reform, and to mark out plans of 
action in this work, not only for our own or- 
ganization, but for other friends of the cause 
outside who are willing and anxiously waiting 
to turn in and aid us. The splendor of our 
fashionable saloons is never tarnished, and 
their attractive lights are never suffered to go 
out. Years ago I saw a bright light in a cer- 
tain grog-shop, which always burned until 
early dawn, and now the same light is there, 
still kept burning in the same position. So 
our Lodges ought to be possessed not only of 
vitality, but their lights, like the vestal fires of 
antiquity, should be always burning. Then, 
2* 17 



l8 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

as so much is expected of us, and we are to be 
the aggressive temperance organization, we 
must labor to increase our influence. 

This can be done in two ways — by waking 
up and energizing our own membership, and 
also by going out and carrying our principles 
among others and inducing them to come in 
w T ith us, the last being the natural result of the 
first. As to having a revival of religion, it is 
necessary to commence it in the hearts of be- 
lievers, so we will consider first how we can 
wake up and energize our membership. 

This must principally be done in our Lodge 
meetings. We ought to render the meetings 
of our organization so interesting that mem- 
bers will never leave them without feeling 
that they have been made better by having 
attended. 

The question, How can we make our Lodge 
meetings interesting? is often asked; and, as 
the key-note to our success as an organization, 
we will give our views, in answer to the in- 
quiry, in this and subsequent articles. 

As the first requisite to make our meeting 
interesting, we must have a pleasant and at- 
tractive place of meeting, so that our members 
will become interested in the Lodge-room. It 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 19 

should be comfortably and attractively fur- 
nished, easy seating, carpet or matting for the 
floor, pictures and pleasant walls for the eye, 
well heated and ventilated, and commodious, 
the dimensions being adapted to the numbers 
which will generally occupy it. Let it be not 
too large, for a few members in a very large 
hall makes a meeting seem cold and cheerless. 
Our natures are so sympathetic that we must 
be near together if we would have interesting 
meetings. 

A young lad of our Order once said to me, 
after attending a meeting in a pleasant and 
nicely fitted up Lodge-room, that he wished 
he could attend meeting there always. "Why ?" 
I asked. " Oh, because they have such a 
splendid place to meet in." This is the out- 
gushing opinion of a young Good Templar 
who had enjoyed a meeting in an attractive 
room. He volunteered no opinion of the 
exercises of the meeting, because the pleasure 
induced by the surroundings was so great as 
to envelop all else. 

It is our especial object to gather in the 
young and train them in the principles of total 
abstinence ; and, as we know they are at- 
tracted by a pleasant place of resort, which 



20 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

our great enemy everywhere furnishes them in 
the gilded, gorgeous saloon where the fiery 
serpent lurks, to turn aside from virtue, entrap 
and ruin, we ought to furnish pleasant and 
socially attractive places where they may fre- 
quent, and have a guaranty that no great arch- 
enemy is concealed within, ready with a syren 
voice to charm its victims on to death. 

Consult good taste in a Lodge-room. We 
must, of course, provide halls proportionate to 
our means ; but extra efforts ought to be made 
to raise funds to fit up a Lodge-room, and 
sacrifices made, if need be, for such purpose. 

Again, we must have efficient and faithful 
officers, always selecting the best members we 
have for the several positions ; and the officers 
should strive to qualify themselves to discharge 
their respective duties as well as possible. 

The membership of a Lodge will never at- 
tain a higher standard of working or interest 
in the Order than that attained by the officers ; 
and if the members see their officers full of life 
and energetic action in our work, they will 
manifest a corresponding degree of vitality, 
energy and faithfulness. Especially is it neces- 
sary to have a presiding officer who is well 
qualified for the position — a well-tried and 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 21 

persistent friend of the cause of temperance, 
and one who commands the respect of the 
Lodge and entire community. If a Lodge, in 
its early history, will exercise great care to 
select competent W. C. Templars — such as 
will enforce our rules and usages and preserve 
strict order — the members will very soon learn 
to pay such deference and respect to the 
opinions and mandates of the chair that, 
though you might happen to have the most 
inexperienced lad or the weakest sister in the 
chair for the time, the same order would be 
preserved and deference paid, because the 
members have learned to respect the posi- 
tion rather than the particular incumbent. 
W. C. T.s have been known to be engaged in 
whispering and laughing with his Supporters 
even during the initiatory ceremonies, when, 
of course, the members followed suit, and thus 
the greatest confusion and disorder charac- 
terize ceremonies which should be as orderly 
and solemn as the prayer-meetings of Chris- 
tian churches. In my next I shall speak of 
Order in our Lodge meetings, and prescribe 
a course of action which will do much to bring 
any Lodge up to a standard of good order 
during its sessions. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING.— ORDER. 

"^"ARDER is Nature's first law." Not a 
\^S leaf, flower, insect, bird or animal 
exists but bears proof of the existence, of this 
law in its very highest state, both in its crea- 
tion, preservation and action. The entire 
planetary system is the object of motion, 
which, regulated by two different attractive 
forces, reduces every movement to the most 
perfect exactness. 

No Lodge can expect to have its meetings 
interesting without good order in the trans- 
action of all its business. The W. C. T. 
should have a programme or docket, with the 
business of the evening all laid down, the 
name of each committee to report, each item 
of unfinished business, and especially, under 
the head of " Good of the Order," there should 
be an established order of exercises for the 
evening; and each member should respond 
22 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 23 

promptly, when called upon, to perform the 
part assigned. 

If we attend a public anniversary or any 
entertainment, where every part is in readi- 
ness as the chairman or master of ceremonies 
makes an announcement, so that no delay en- 
sues, we are interested in it, even though some 
of the exercises might bear criticism, and 
would be exceedingly dull and unentertaining 
if they did not form a part of exercises which 
are being performed with promptness and 
regularity. Anything but this happen-so, 
don't-know-what's-coming-next, rather-be-ex- 
cused, waiting-between-exercises, ever- drag- 
ging, dull way of conducting any meeting, 
and especially of a Lodge meeting. Con- 
fusion, dullness and for ever dragging and 
waiting and asking to be excused will destroy 
the leaven in any meeting and the life and 
energy of any Lodge. They may not be as 
rapid in their disastrous effects as is prussic 
acid upon the human system, but none the 
less sure. 

Especially during our initiations must we 
have order and system : no waiting — no mis- 
takes — no laughing — no whispering — nothing 
to distract the attention. The object of this 



24 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

ceremony is to impress ; but such object is 
thwarted if the ceremony is not conducted 
with strict decorum. 

A Rev. brother related in my hearing the 
following occurrence, which is in point. He 
was soliciting a person to join the Good 
Templars, when he received the following re- 
ply: "Two years ago I was invited to join 
your organization, consented, was elected, and 
had proceeded as far in the initiation as the 
close of the first paragraph in the obligation, 
when some one in the room burst out in a fit 
of laughter. I was so amazed and grieved 
that the members had no higher appreciation 
of the solemnity of the obligation I was taking, 
and the terrible struggle I had passed through 
before I could make up my mind to pledge 
myself for life to total abstinence, that I wanted 
nothing to do with such an organization, and 
turned and abruptly left the room, and never 
could I be induced since to give my name to 
the Good Templars." 

This laughter, probably, was inadvertent 
and not designed to produce disorder, and yet 
the result proved none the less disastrous be- 
cause the offspring of carelessness. 

At one of our District Conventions last sum- 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 25 

mer, while this subject was under discussion, 
a brother clergyman said that, when he was 
initiated, during the obligation some one 
laughed aloud, and it embarrassed and morti- 
fied him exceedingly, as he supposed some- 
thing wrong in his dress or deportment gave 
rise to it ; so that the impression which our 
ceremonies are calculated to make upon the 
initiate was lost upon him. 

To bring a Lodge up to a more correct 
standard of working, allow me to suggest the 
critic system which originated in Xo. 4. and, 
proving successful, has since been tried in 
other Lodges, with like results. The plan is 
this : The W. C. T., at the opening of each 
session, appoints two of the most competent 
members as critics, who take pencil and paper, 
and everything occurring during the session 
requiring criticism — such as a wrong signal, 
entering without regalia, incorrect salutation 
or response, errors in pronunciation or emphasis 
while reading or speaking, \Y. C. T. giving 
unwritten work wrong, whispering, laughing, 
crossing the room while a member is speaking 
or the chair is stating a question, — in short, 
anything and everything which is contrary to 
our Constitution, By-Laws, Rules and usages, 
3 



26 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER, 

or good taste, is noted down, and at the close of 
the session they are called upon for a report. 

This report of the critics, especially when 
spiced with a little pleasantry and wit, is ren- 
dered exceedingly interesting, and thus two 
purposes are accomplished : first, you add one 
of the most attractive features to your meet- 
ings, which induces the members to remain 
until adjournment, for each desires to hear the 
report ; and you will also, in time, bring your 
Lodge up to a correct standard of working, 
for experience proves that members judiciously 
but faithfully criticized for a mistake or incor- 
rect habits will not repeat the error nor persist 
in the habit. Especially is this the case with 
the young ; and who can estimate the salutary 
effect of this system of criticism upon a young 
lad as in after years he engages in active life, 
free from many faults which, but for these fra- 
ternal criticisms in the Lodge-room, would 
have followed him through life? 

Of course, we must exercise care in our 
selections, as the members appointed must be 
able to command the respect and confidence 
of the Lodge, and the criticisms must be 
strictly impartial and never undeserved, or 
they will not be respected. 



CHAPTER V. 

PUNCTUALITY, PROMPTNESS, DESPATCH IN 
THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

PUNCTUALITY and promptness on the 
part of officers and committees of a Lodge 
are essential to its efficient working and the 
interest of its meetings. 

Each Lodge has a fixed hour of meeting, 
and the W. C. T. should always be on time to 
call the Lodge to order at the precise hour. 
Sometimes when the W. C. T. is promptly in 
attendance, fifteen or twenty minutes elapse 
before the Lodge is called to order, waiting 
for the members to come in. This is erro- 
neous, for the members will never learn punc- 
tuality from such a practice. If the W. C. T. 
himself is tardy, or, being on time, does not 
call his Lodge to order, the members will 
generally consult their own convenience about 
attending. If one has a letter to write and 
post, a call to make, or any chores to do, he 
generally does them before going to Lodge, 

27 



28 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

rightly thinking that the W. C. T. will be be- 
hind, and he will be there in ample time even 
if he consults the caprice of convenience. 

On the contrary, if the W. C. T. is prompt 
in attending and calling the Lodge to order at 
the hour, the members will very soon learn 
that, if they would not find the doors closed, 
they must be there at the hour ; and all gene- 
rally prefer to be present during the opening 
exercises. Our membership will learn to be 
on time at our meetings if the example is set 
them by our officers. 

Lodges should also have an hour of adjourn- 
ment, and, when such hour arrives, adjourn, 
unless it may be some special occasion that 
seems to require an extension of the time. 
We have business men connected with our 
Order whose time cannot be given to our 
work unless they can know precisely when 
they .are required to meet and when they will 
be able to return from the Lodge. They have 
business engagements, and must stay away 
from us unless our session hours are so definite 
that they can adapt their business engagements 
to them. We need more of this class of men 
in our various localities to come in with us if 
we hope to be successful against alcohol ; but 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 29 

we cannot get them, and we cannot reason- 
ably expect them, if they never know when 
the Lodge is to meet, nor whether they will 
get out at nine and a half or twelve o'clock. 

Irregular hours are especially objectionable 
to parents who have children belonging to our 
organization, and many are deterred from 
granting consent to their children to join us 
in consequence of the lateness of some of our 
sessions. 

An obvious advantage is derived in the 
transaction of our business from a fixed hour 
of adjournment, as we have before us a given 
time in which our work must be done ; hence 
no time will be frittered away on non-essen- 
tials ; and certainly our time is too valuable to 
be wasted, and we should avail ourselves of 
every feature calculated to aid us in husband- 
ing it. 

The other officers should be prompt as well 
as the W. C. T., and especially those who 
have charge of the books and property of the 
Lodge. We have been in Lodges where the 
entire membership waited twenty minutes for 
a dilatory Secretary to come in with his books. 
Twenty or thirty business men, the value of 
whose time all well know, waiting the motion 

3* 



30 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

or convenience of one officer of the Lodge, is 
not only annoying, but positively wrong ; and 
no Lodge can hold these members long in the 
meetings or prosper under such action. In 
some Lodges committees are never ready to 
report when called upon. When the W. C. T. 
calls for reports of Committees of Investiga- 
tion, the Secretary first looks to see who con- 
stitute the committees ; then part are found to 
be absent, and the vacancies have to be filled ; 
then the committees gather around the Secre- 
tary's table and make out their report, causing 
great confusion, and the Lodge is obliged to 
wait for them to prepare business which should 
have been in readiness before the Lodge was 
called to order. All committees should have 
their reports made out during the week, or 
meet previous to the opening of the Lodge, in 
time to have the reports prepared, so that 
when that order of business is reached busi- 
ness may move on, unruffled by delay, and no 
time wasted. 

In many of our Lodges one-fourth of the 
time is exhausted in tedious waiting and un- 
necessary dragging of business, thus leaving 
little or no time for the good of the Order 
or for devising general plans of action, be- 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 3 1 

sides disgusting the better class of our mem- 
bers at the slowness of our movements. 

In the initiation of candidates especially is 
this true. Some time since, at one of our Dis- 
trict Conventions, some brother expressed a 
wish that a memorial might be prepared to 
the R. W. G. Lodge asking for an abridgment 
of the Ritual, as the initiation consumed so 
much time as to deter some business men 
from connecting themselves with our organiza- 
tion. I inquired of the brother if he knew how 
much time was required, necessarily, to initiate 
candidates. He replied he did not, but fre- 
quently an hour was consumed on this busi- 
ness in their Lodge. I then stated that the 
committee preparing the present Ritual, and 
other skillful workers in our Order, had ti??ied 
the initiatory ceremony, and twenty minutes 
w r as all the time necessarily required in per- 
forming the ceremony. Now, how is so much 
time consumed? It is in the officers not having 
everything in readiness, and in frittering away 
much time in movements and on matters en- 
tirely foreign to the ceremony. The Marshal 
is sent out into the ante-room to see if there 
are any candidates in waiting, and stays per- 
haps ten minutes, holding converse on the 



32 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

state of the weather and prospects of crops in 
general ; then the P. W. C. T. and F. Secre- 
tary consume fifteen minutes frequently in the 
discharge of their duties ; and thus the busi- 
ness drags along, the W. C. T. probably giving 
the finishing touch to this prodigality, in occu- 
pying the length of time required for the entire 
ceremony in explaining the unwritten work. 

All these wastes must be avoided ; and we 
will only render our ceremonies impressive 
and our entire Lodge sessions truly interesting 
when we have learned punctuality, prompt- 
ness and despatch in the workings of our 
organization. 




CHAPTER VI. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. READINESS TO DISCHARGE DUTY. 

EXERCISES UNDER THE HEAD OF u GOOD 
OF THE ORDER."— PERSONAL DUTY. 

GOOD TEMPLARS are generally ready 
to engage in our work in any capacity 
they may be placed. Our most active, long- 
tried and honored members are frequently 
selected for Outside Guard, and enter upon 
the discharge of its duties with cheerfulness 
and earnestness. Those who have the love 
of the cause at heart are ready and anxious to 
labor in any sphere of action where they can 
be promotive of good. 

Sometimes, however, we have been in 
Lodges where there was a great mania for 
asking to be excused, and frequently the W. 
C. T. found it difficult to fill his committees 
and appointed offices. Now, if there is any- 
thing in the world that falls like an iceberg on 

33 



34 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

the interest of a Lodge meeting it is this habit 
of asking to be excused. We are aware many 
members make excuses because they really feel 
incompetent to fill the position assigned them, 
but more do it from a disinclination to be 
troubled or an unwillingness to make sacrifices 
for the cause, and in either case the example 
is detrimental to the interest of the Lodge, and 
often proves positively disastrous. 

Though we much dislike to see members 
striving for the offices in the Lodge, we confess 
to having much more hope for such a Lodge 
than where the offices have to go begging for 
incumbents. Let us take hold of any duty as- 
signed to us as though we loved the work and 
as if we felt proud to be thus engaged and 
honored by the appointment ; then others will 
begin to feel interested, and our glorious enter- 
prise will be pushed on to certain success and 
the enemy against which we are warring be 
driven to destruction. 

Under the head of " Good of the Order" it 
becomes the special duty of each member to 
do something to make the meetings interest- 
ing. We have attended meetings where the 
regular routine of business was gone through 
with hurriedly, and when the order, "Has 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 35 

any one anything to offer for the good of the 
Order ?" was reached, some one moved to ad- 
journ, which motion was carried, and the 
Lodge adjourned and the members separated. 
Xow, how much better or more interested is a 
member for having attended such a meeting? 
How much stronger to go forth into the world 
and battle against intemperance? 

Our meetings are intended as preparatory 
schools to get our members interested in our 
work and the cause, and to arm them with the 
arrows of truth, which they can draw upon 
the enemy as they mingle in the business and 
social circles of life. 

Lodges should have a regular programme 
of exercises for each evening under this head. 
This may consist of a manuscript paper, edited 
by some competent brother or sister and sup- 
ported by the liberal contributions of the 
membership, select readings, original essays, 
a question-box, discussions of questions re- 
lating to the cause, or miscellaneous or such 
other exercises as the good taste and expe- 
rience of the members may suggest ; but, in 
case these prepared and arranged exercises do 
not occupy the whole time, or none are in 
readiness, then each member should feel as 



36 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

though he or she was responsible for some 
profitable entertainment. 

No one who attends our meetings but can 
say, read, write or sing something of interest 
to others. We are all interested in each other, 
and are profited by each other's thoughts and 
suggestions. 

When quite young I became connected 
with a Christian church, and was once slightly 
reproved for not attending the prayer-meetings 
more regularly. I had to confess tnat I was 
not interested and I thought the meetings dull. 
My pastor said the difficulty was with me : if 
I would go to the meeting prepared to take 
some part which would interest others, I would 
become interested myself and no longer con- 
sider the meeting dull. I readily saw the 
point was well taken. So in our organization, 
if each member would be prepared to offer 
some remarks, read some selection, sing an 
appropriate song — anything to interest — there 
would be no lack of entertainment at our meet- 
ings. So many of our membership go to 
Lodge and sit with hands folded and mouths 
closed through the entire meeting, as if they 
expected to be perpetually fed at the hands of 
Brother A. or Sister B., and seem to think 



1 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 37 

is the especial duty of certain members to as- 
sume all the responsibility, do all the work 
and afford all the entertainment, and then, if 
perchance they have not been as much in- 
terested as they desired, go away remarking 
how dull the Lodge meetings are becoming, 
and they don't think it " pays" to go. 

Members of this class frequently thus sit 
during the meeting while important business 
is transacted, not offering a suggestion or op- 
posing action in any form, and yet the next 
day stoutly condemn the passage of some resolu- 
tion, and affirm that such unwise action must 
sooner or later tear the Lodge into fragments. 
Now, this action may not have been wise, and 
may prove very detrimental to the best interests 
of the Lodge and Order, but no member should 
say aught against it after it has passed, and 
certainly such members as those just referred 
to are the last ones who should condemn it. 

The time to offer an opinion upon any ques- 
tion or to make an opposition against any 
measure is when it is under consideration, and 
then, if one's views are correct, the majority 
of the Lodge will generally see it and adopt 
them ; but, if it should not so adopt our opinion, 
instead of arraying ourselves in opposition, so 
4 



3$ THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

much greater is the need of our aiding in the 
execution of the measure. Unwise measures 
endorsed by all, after they have passed, are 
often less disastrous in their consequences than 
wise ones with a portion of the membership 
arrayed against their enforcement. 

But I have inadvertently digressed. The 
point especially designed to enforce is that 
each member should feel and act as though 
the interest and efficiency of the Lodge meet- 
ings were dependent upon him, and if there 
is any want of interest or decrease of efficiency, 
look to himself as the cause and seek the 
remedy there. 

The following extract from the Boston Good 
Templar is so exactly apropos that I take the 
liberty of copying : 

" We know of no word that is oftener used 
in a manner to excite the contempt of the faith- 
ful than the little pronoun they. Take our 
own loved Order for instance. How often is 
an expression like this made when speaking 
of the Lodge and its meetings : ' Well, I rather 
think they are going down hill ;' and, being 
questioned why he does not attend more punc- 
tually, the answer is, ' Why, they don't ap- 
pear to have interest enough. If they would 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 39 

only make the meetings more interesting I 
should like to be there.' That is the cry : if 
they — they — they would only make the meet- 
ings more interesting. 

11 Now, let each brother put to himself this 
question (and sister too) : ' If I wait till they 
create an interest in my Lodge, how long be- 
fore I shall attend its meetings?' When you 
feel like solving this question, you will un- 
doubtedly find yourself unconsciously inter- 
ested. But if you really want to see the meet- 
ings interesting — if you want to find a pleasure 
in participating in that interest — just go to 
your Lodge and make an interest. Never 
say, ' They f always use the word, '/:' ' If I 
can't feel an interest in the Lodge,' not ' They 
don't make an interest.' 

" Dear brother or sister, if you will only set 
yourself to work to make the meetings of your 
Lodge interesting, that very work on your part 
will create an excitement in your bosom that 
will give you an interest in spite of yourself. 
Go to your Lodge meetings determined to feel 
an interest in the proceedings, get up at the 
proper time and introduce some subject of in- 
terest to the members, and push it ahead till 
others are moved, and then remember that 



40 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

'I 9 did it, and that *P can do it again if 
need be. 

" Above all, never let the individual 'I 9 be 
swallowed up by 4 they. 9 Remember that 
your Lodge is composed of individuals, and 
that each one has an equal share of its bur- 
dens. If interest is wanting, remember that 
it is ' I 9 who must create it. If I lay back and 
look for the interest that they must create, 
then an eternity might roll away without it. 
Lodges would crumble, and Good Templarism, 
with all its high and noble aspirations, become 
lost to the world, under the influence of such 
a principle. When the individual becomes 
merged in the mass, losing all personal iden- 
tity, society is at once placed on the retro- 
grade ; and, in an institution like ours, the 
principle is death. 

" Brothers and sisters, when you refer to 
the affairs of your Lodge, do not forget that 
you are part of it. If any one does wrong, 
point out the delinquent. But when you feel 
a lack of interest, look to your own exertions : 
never wait for a reform longer than you are 
putting your shoulder to the wheel. Never 
let the individual * I 9 be sunk beneath the in- 
discriminate ' they.' " 



CHAPTER VII. 



HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. NEWSPAPERS, MUSIC, ETC. 

IN our last chapter we endeavored to en- 
force upon our membership the personal 
duty of each to do something to render the 
Lodge meetings interesting. 

Willing and anxious as we may be to per- 
form our part toward accomplishing this end, 
we are wholly unfitted to contribute even our 
mite unless we seek to inform ourselves in 
reference to the great questions connected with 
this reform. 

No one can hope to be thus informed with- 
out giving a liberal patronage to the temper- 
ance press and studying the works that dis- 
cuss these questions in all their various aspects. 
We are interested ourselves, and our hearts 
are enlisted in any theme just in proportion 
as we read upon and give thorough investiga- 
tion to it ; and we must become intelligent 

4* 41 



42 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

workers in the great temperance reform if we 
would hope to be efficient. 

In my own brief professional experience I 
have found that I became intensely interested 
in some suit at law, in which I have studied 
well the adjudicated cases bearing upon it, not 
merely because there is a certain amount of 
money at stake or the title to some homestead 
dependent upon the issue, but because the 
principles involved in the case have been so 
thoroughly scanned and analyzed. 

The agriculturist reads the periodicals espe- 
cially devoted to his pursuit, until his vocation, 
in his estimation, is lifted from the mere me- 
chanical plodding after the plough and har- 
row, and elevated to a high profession, calling 
to its aid all the natural sciences. He has 
made farming in all its branches his study 
until he has become an enthusiast upon all 
subjects connected with the soil, and all his 
tasks and aspirations have become ennobled 
thereby. He is now fitted to interest others in 
his calling, and can consistently become a 
teacher in these questions which have so long 
occupied his earnest attention and reflection. 

Not long since, at a District Convention, a 
brother asked me, as is usual, how the cause 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 43 

progressed in the State. I replied that never, 
in my recollection, was there so much perma- 
nent interest in the cause, and never was our 
organization so prosperous as now. " Ah, 
indeed," he replied ; " why, our Lodge has 
been going down this winter, and I supposed 
the interest in the cause was declining." 

During the reports from Lodges, I requested 
a statement of the number of temperance 
papers taken by the members of each Lodge, 
and this brother's report disclosed the too 
common fact that his Lodge took only one 
copy, and a little cross-examination brought 
out the further fact that this copy was sent by 
the Grand Lodge gratuitously, and even this 
copy was never read or seen by the member- 
ship. Why should not this brother have sup- 
posed the cause on the decline? He judged 
its status elsewhere by his own place ; and 
how else could he judge it? Wholly ignorant 
of the unusual activity of our temperance 
workers in other places, what wonder is it 
that the members in that place became luke- 
warm and disheartened? 

If the members of this Lodge had been 
readers of our official organ, how would their 
hearts have been encouraged by the thrilling 



44 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

accounts of the progress of our work in dif- 
ferent localities, the stirring resolutions of Dis- 
trict Conventions, and earnest appeals from 
our lecturers and officers ! and how would 
their minds have been stored with valuable 
truths, as the various questions connected with 
our grand enterprise are fully and elaborately 
discussed in its columns by the first pens of 
the age ! 

Good Templars should patronize the tem- 
perance press, because it is the prolific source 
of information to all engaged in our glorious 
reform which is to give them wisdom to de- 
vise and plan for judicious action, and earnest- 
ness and zeal to work heartily and effectively. 

In my experience as an administrative officer 
of our organization, our best Lodges are those 
where the most temperance papers are taken 
and the most comprehensive libraries are sus- 
tained, and vice versd. 

The remarks of the Keystone Good Tem- 
plar, our own official organ, are sound and in 
point, and my own observation confirms the 
statement in every particular : 

" We would earnestly invite your immediate 
attention to the great importance of extensively 
circulating The Templar among the members 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 45 

of every Lodge throughout the State, firmly 
believing that no single agency can possibly 
be employed that will so effectually revive and 
vitalize the Order generally as a cheap, popu- 
lar, sound and reliable weekly paper. 

"A number of Lodges have already sub- 
scribed, in clubs numbering from five to sixty 
each, and as far as we have been able to as- 
certain all these are prospering. Lancaster 
Lodge, for instance, three months ago, enjoyed 
but little more than a mere existence. After 
several unsuccessful efforts had been made to 
revive it, a proposition was made to use a por- 
tion of the funds remaining in the treasury to 
subscribe for The Templar — one copy to 
each member for one year — which was unani- 
mously agreed to, and the paper has been for- 
warded accordingly. The result is most grati- 
fying. Members who had been almost for- 
gotten now attend the Lodge regularly ; the 
meetings are large and interesting ; new mem- 
bers have been added ; old ones are squaring 
their accounts on the books ; money is again 
flowing into the treasury, very soon to replace 
the comparatively small sum paid for the sixty 
papers subscribed for ; and the Lodge is in a 
truly prosperous condition. That this is the 



46 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

natural result of making each a reading 
member of the Lodge seems clear and un- 
questionable. With such results before us, 
argument as to the importance and value of 
such a paper is deemed unnecessary." 

Again, we must add the charms of music 
if we would have our Lodge meetings really- 
interesting. Let Lodge choirs be formed and 
sustained, so that not only our excellent. ,odes 
may be sung with spirit and effect, but that we 
may also have provided other fresh and stir- 
ring temperance music which shall thrill the 
hearts of the membership. Our Good Temp- 
lars complain that it is difficult to obtain good 
temperance music — that what we have is of a 
juvenile character. We admit this, and add 
that it will never be furnished us until we pay 
more attention to this department of our ex- 
ercises, so as to create a demand for temper- 
ance music. Publishers of music are business 
men, and will only publish what will sell, and 
we have ourselves to blame for not having the 
shelves of our music stores teeming with 
choice sheets of temperance songs, and music 
fresh from the press. Lodges should always 
have an instrument, when any reasonable sac- 
rifice will result in securing one. It is a sine 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER, 47 

qua ?zon, and no Lodge is so poor but that one 
can be obtained if each member goes to work 
with that end in view. 

Without good music our meetings will seem 
dull, even when we have a fair programme of 
interesting exercises. With it, a meeting 
otherwise dull will be lively and entertaining. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. REGULAR ATTENDANCE OF THE MEM- 
BERS NECESSARY. 

NO Lodge meeting can be interesting if 
but slimly attended. An audience is as 
essential to an interesting meeting as a lively, 
entertaining programme of exercises ; and a 
speaker of John B. Gough celebrity cannot * 
make a meeting successful without the sympa- 
thetic, mesmeric influence of good listeners. 
Our Grand Lodge lecturers have often left the 
reputation behind them of tame and dry speak- 
ers, when the fault was in the audience, or in 
the people in not securing an audience. 

Nine-tenths of the benefit of a good point is 
lost when alone I hear it, while there are nine 
others that should be present to hear the same. 
It is poor encouragement for an active member 
of a Lodge to spend time in the preparation of 
entertainment when only a small proportion of 
48 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 49 

the membership manifest sufficient apprecia- 
tion to attend the meeting and hear it. 

The closing charge of the W. C. T. to the 
initiate, " that it is expected you will be present 
at all our meetings." is placed last because 
believed to be one of the most important 
duties of the members, and yet many of our 
ablest and most influential members act as 
though attendance upon the Lodge meetings 
was a matter of mere convenience. 

We believe it a violation of our obligation 
to voluntarily, without reasonable excuse, ab- 
sent ourselves from the Lodge meetings ; and 

:en our membership shall have become edu- 
cated up to this standard of action we shall 
have fewer complaints of dull meetings and 
declining interest, and, as a logical sequence, 
less suspensions of Lodges. 

The following original speech, which we 
publish by permission, is in point : 

" One of our eighteen-year-old Templars 
made the following private speech recently. 
out in the ante-room, immediately after closing 
a Lodge meeting, which had been attended by 
about fifteen faithful ones out of one hundred 
members in good standing : 

44 4 1 used to think that Brother J and 



50 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

Brother N « were the head men of the 

Lodge, for I often see their names in the papers 
when State meetings and conventions are held, 
and in the proceedings of national Lodges and 
similar organizations ; but right here, at home, 
they are never on hand when anything is to be 
done to help the subordinate Lodge or to carry 
on our meetings. I wonder how they ever 
came to figure so very prominently abroad, 
whilst at home they are never thought of as 

active temperance men ? There's Brother J 

who thinks nothing of traveling from three 
hundred to five hundred miles to attend a Na- 
tional convention, or a National Lodge or 
society, where he and the other leading men 
cut out the work for us to do, but he never 
shows his face here. I suppose he's got to be 
above us rank and file. But, then, it seems to 
me, he ought not to palm himself off as our 
representative when among his kind of tem- 
perance leaders abroad, for the truth is, he's 
no representative at all, but ov\y for himself. 
I wonder whether the members of the Right 
Worthy Grand Lodge, of the Grand National 
Division and of the national temperance socie- 
ties are all like him — a Good Templar, without 
caring more for a subordinate Lodge than a 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 5 1 

cow does about preaching? And then there's 

Brother D ; he isn't a bit better. Since 

last August I have attended every meeting of 
the Lodge except two, and, you may b'lieve me 
or not, I didn't see him in the Lodge once 
during all this time, and yet the temperance 
men abroad, I know, look upon him as one of 
the most powerful and influential champions 
of the cause ! Where's the Financial Secre- 
tary ? I would like to know whether he isn't 
enough in arrears to enable us to suspend or 
expel him for non-payment of dues ? If he is, 
we ought to hoist him out at the very next 
meeting. He can make a good speech, as we 
all know, and likes to do it- — in State conven- 
tions, Gi'and Lodges and National conven- 
tions — but he's entirely above us and never 
comes near our meetings. We'd better be 
without such members, for then they wouldn't 
keep others away, as they now do, by popular- 
izing the impression that it isn't at all dignified, 
fashionable or necessary to attend meetings 
and come down to our level. But just let 
some leading functionary come along from 
abroad — one who's at the head of the heap — 
and I'll warrant you he'll be on hand, too, and 
cut the biggest kind of a swell. Now, I honor 



5* 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 



and respect leaders of brain, character and 
reputation, but, somehow, I do think they might 
call in at Lodge meetings occasionally — once 
in a while — without seriously lowering their 
dignity. Let's turn down the gas and go 
home !' " 




CHAPTER IX. 



HOW TO MAKE LODGE MEETINGS INTEREST- 
ING. — OUTSIDE WORK. PUBLIC MEETINGS. 

IT is frequently charged against us that we 
are an exclusive organization, confining 
our beneficial operations to our own member- 
ship. With some Lodges the charge is well 
founded. Selfishness, brothers and sisters, 
should not actuate the Good Templar in this 
great Temperance reform. Let us recollect 
that we are not to work merely to save our- 
selves and families ; but when these interests 
are securely guarded by the benign influence 
of our organization, our neighbor and his 
family are in danger, and humanity demands 
all our energies in reaching out to save them. 

I am frequently invited to visit Lodges which 

seem to be on the wane, and invariably I find 

such to be lukewarm and stupid as neglect 

entirely to hold stated public meetings in 

5* 53 



54 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

which all who love the cause and sympathize 
with Temperance work may participate. 

We are so constituted that we only really 
appreciate our blessings and privileges when 
we share those gifts with others, and we best 
enjoy the blessings of total abstinence when 
most ardently laboring to extend those bless- 
ings to others. 

Our organization is not close enough to live 
and grow when our membership are shut up 
in our Lodge rooms, and not striving to scatter 
the golden beams of Truth and Temperance in 
the by-ways where so many are being led as- 
tray and made victims of the flowing bowl. 

Our reform cannot advance without agita- 
tion and persistent discussion ; and no better 
means can be devised to keep the public atten- 
tion constantly alive to the interests involved 
in this great enterprise of humanity than fre- 
quent and periodical open Temperance meet- 
ings. 

Each Lodge has the ability to initiate this 
movement and creditably sustain such meet- 
ings. Do not wait for the Grand Lodge to 
send you a lecturer, or even until some emi- 
nent speaker from abroad can be secured, but 
learn self-reliance, and go to work and develop 



: 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 55 

the resources within yourselves. Draw upon 
your own membership for addresses, recita- 
tions and music to make public meetings in- 
teresting, and invite your ministers, physi- 
cians and lawyers who are not Good Temp- 
lars to give you addresses or sermons from 
time to time. 

Not many months since a member of a 
Lodge in one of the border counties of the 
State wrote me a most desponding letter in 
reference to his Lodge — that it had suspended 
meetings, and must go down, &c. ; and also 
remarked that "they had been waiting all 
winter for the Grand Lodge to send them a 
lecturer !" Poor, feeble souls ! that have lost 
their vitality while waiting for the nourishment 
to be sent them which was all the time in their 
own possession. 

I hope our Lodges will divest themselves of 
this feeling of entire dependence either upon 
the Grand Lodge or any particular member 
of the Subordinate Lodge. 

If deprived of assistance from the Grand 
Lodge, or providentially of the services of a 
valuable member, the loss may be made 
marked gain if thereby the Lodge is stimu- 
lated to greater exertion and develops the 



56 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

hidden resources that are certainly within 
it. 

The effect of any public Temperance meet- 
ing is to induce earnest discussion of the ques- 
tions connected with this reform. After a lec- 
ture, on the street corners, in the stores and 
shops, and especially the liquor shops, may 
always be seen small debating clubs improvised 
for a discussion of its merits, and it matters not 
whether the verdict of such circles is favorable 
or unfavorable ; so far as the meeting has re- 
sulted in awakening the public attention to the 
evils of intemperance, and the importance of 
effort to arrest its spread, great good has been 
done. 

If the interests of the Christian religion 
were not oftener brought before the public 
than the temperance cause, what a terrible 
spiritual dearth would we see around us ! The 
zeal of the most pious would wax cold, and 
wickedness would stalk abroad at noonday 
with entire impunity. 

With several churches in each little place, 
each supporting stated preaching on the Sab- 
bath, and week-day prayer-meetings and lec- 
tures, and this having been continued for 
nearly nineteen centuries, Christianity is yet 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. SI 

far from having gained the victory over the 
great enemy of human souls. 

Then with only occasionally a Temperance 
organization, and holding open Temperance 
meetings once or twice a year, the subject dis- 
cussed only by a select few whose hearts are 
interested in the work, what wonder is it that 
we see so much lukewarmness ? Let us wake 
up, brethren, and bring this subject to the at- 
tention of our friends and neighbors and force 
them to think upon it. It is not material 
under whose auspices a public Temperance 
meeting is held, nor whether the lecturer or 
hearers in the meeting are good Templars or 
not, our membership should aid them all in 
their power. 

It is of course natural and commendable 
that we should seek to advance our own or- 
ganization, but the result of any Temperance 
meeting, or of any orthodox Temperance lec- 
ture, is to build up and strengthen our organi- 
zation, if it has existence in such place. 

When you have induced thinking on the 
part of the public, some are at once led to the 
conclusion that it is duty to act, and when at 
this point the next question is, How and where 
shall we act ? The only answer that can be 



58 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 






given is : "In some working temperance or- 
ganization," which we claim to be, and popu- 
lar opinion generally concedes that merit, at 
least, to us. 

The modus operandi of a public meeting, 
that it may be attractive as well as instructive, 
will suggest itself to the good judgment and 
taste of all our membership. 

Such meetings must always vary with dif- 
ferent localities and tastes. In this article I 
merely wish to impress upon all the import- 
ance of holding them. 




CHAPTER X. 

DIFFICULTIES IN LODGES. — WHAT CAUSES 

THEM AND THE RESULTS. WHY LODGES 

FAIL. 

GOOD TEMPLARS might hope for rapid 
strides in the great Temperance reform 
working through our organization could we 
always count on the permanent existence of 
our Lodges. If the machinery of a Good 
Templar Lodge, when once put in running 
order and set in motion, would continue its 
revolutions without friction, by the ordinary 
application of motive power, we would have 
the happy influence of thousands more of 
Lodges than exist to-day. 

Unfortunately, our Lodges fail ; some slight 
disturbing element creeps in and grows until 
it breaks the Lodge into fragments. In my 
experience, Lodges do not go down from op- 
position from the outside enemy ; do not fail 
because our principles are too stringent, or 
from differences created from construing our 

59 



60 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

obligation or platform of principles, or any of 
the great issues that underlie our organization, 
but are destroyed by internal dissensions that 
are generally traceable to some member who 
is determined to have his own way. Indeed, 
the bane of our organization is that we have 
so many brothers who think they are the be 
all and end all of parliamentary law and the 
laws, rules and usages of our Order, and who 
are determined continually to raise small points 
during a session, and to have their own way in 
the settlement of these questions. 

My observation and experience are that our 
appeals do not generally arise from the more 
important and general questions, such as pro- 
hibition, total abstinence even from sweet wine 
and cider, liquor as a medicine, etc., but from 
some of the minor and insignificant points, such 
as : Should the concluding motion of a session 
be to " adjourn," or " close?" Is a motion 
made by a member without regalia legal ? In 
voting for officers, must the full name be on 
the ballot? etc. Upon the settlement of these 
and kindred questions, long and earnest dis- 
cussions arise, and appeals are taken and car- 
ried to our highest judicatories, while issues 
arising from the other class very seldom engen- 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 6l 

der sufficient feeling to carry them beyond the 
subordinate Lodge. 

To all, I would say, avoid raising trifling 
points of /aw, usage and order, because, 

First. It gives rise to long and exhausting 
discussions, and time is too valuable to be con- 
sumed in this way. The various important 
questions connected with the Temperance re- 
form are prolific sources of interest, and time 
can be profitably employed in their considera- 
tion ; and if we ever hope to awaken public 
attention to the importance of these subjects, 
we shall have to give our time and thoughts to 
them, both in the Lodge-room and elsewhere. 

Second. Discussions upon technical points 
are not interesting even to our own member- 
ship. We should not forget that our member- 
ship is made up of the whole family, and 
though some of our men may become intensely 
interested in some of these discussions upon 
trivial questions, our sons, daughters and wives 
may not take one particle of interest. We 
should aim to shape our discussions and all 
exercises so as to afford entertainment as far as 
possible to our united membership. 

Third. It leads to disastrous results. From 
such discussions arise party feeling and bitter- 
6 



62 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

ness, which, sooner or later, end in the disso- 
lution of the Lodge. Great and sad endings 
come from small beginnings. Hundreds of 
our best Lodges, illuminating the entire com- 
munity with their radiance, have gone out in 
the darkness of dissensions and distracted 
counsels. In such Lodges our best and wisest 
men have found themselves powerless to avert 
impending ruin. In conducting Lodges, we 
need to be as u wise as serpents and harmless 
as doves." 

The bickerings and strifes in some of our 
Lodges remind us of a quarrel between two 
small boys, who were going along a road, 
talking together in a pleasant way, when one 
of them said, 

" I wish I had all the pasture-land in the 
world." 

The other said, " And I wish I had all the 
cattle in the world." 

"What would you do with them?" asked 
his friend. 

" Why, I would turn them into your pasture- 
land." 

" No, you wouldn't," was the reply. 

" Yes, I would." 

" But I wouldn't let you." 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER, 63 

" I wouldn't ask you." 

" You shouldn't do it." 

" I should." 

"You sha'n't!" 

« I will !" 

And with that they seized and pounded each 
other like two silly, wicked boys, as they were. 

And we have also often been reminded of 
the well-known farce-comedy of "Paul Pry," 
where everything comes right in the closing 
scene ; Colonel Hardy, belonging to the tra- 
ditional testy class, alone appears discontented. 
Somebody says to him, " You ought to be 
satisfied, for you have had your own way, at 
last ;" but the Colonel replies, " Yes, but / 
have not had ??iy own way of having it" 

Hundreds of our best and most efficient 
Good Templars leave us for no other reason 
than that they become disgusted with the per- 
sistence of some brother in raising and discuss- 
ing insignificant points, and in the continual 
agitation of questions of no real importance. 
Our business men have no time to spend in 
listening to such profitless harangues and no 
taste for such egotistical displays. Many strik- 
ing illustrations might be adduced in our own 
State, where Lodges in the zenith of usefulness 



64 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

and prosperity have been rent into fragments 
in three months' time, from taking advantage 
of technical points and raising insignificant 
questions. I would not censure our brethren 
who so nobly stand upon the constitution and 
defend it from violence. When you feel that 
it is really being violated, raise your point and 
have it decided, but never raise points for the 
sake of showing your own skill as a debater or 
parliamentarian, or merely to trip up your op- 
ponent in a discussion. 

Again, when a question you raise has been 
decided, yield a cheerful compliance, and go 
to work with all the earnestness you can com- 
mand to sustain such decision. If the final de- 
cision is contrary to your convictions and the 
position previously occupied by you, your pres- 
ent compliance with and support of the de- 
cision will make your advocacy all the more 
potent for good. Oh how strong would our 
Lodges become if our membership was only 
united in supporting every measure adopted 
by the majority and sustaining every decision 
made by the constituted authorities ! 

Though the W. C. T. or G. W. C. T. may 
not be any better qualified, or even as well 
qualified, to adjudicate questions of law or 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. ^ 

gc as yourself, still it is necessary to have 
that power vested somewhere in all human 
organizations, and as it has been given to those 
officers, their decision should receive your 
hearty concurrence. Feasible as may be your 
plan of action, it is not possible for it to be 
always adopted in any organization. The ob- 
ject of organized effort is that we may have the 
benefit of collected wisdom : and that an or- 
ganization may work harmoniously upon a 
united plan, you must yield some of con- 

victions of policy and I must yield some of 
mine. So long as we pull in different direc- 
tions we cannot hope to work effectively. 

At the close of a lecture a few days ago. 
a good brother, very much excited, said, 
" Brother Chase, will you not do something to 
save our Lodge :*' 

Upon inquiring as to the difficulty, " Why." 
said he, " they have gone and spent a hundred 
and fifty dollars for those curtains.'' pointing to 
the curtains for dramatic entertainments, i; and 
the Lodge is ruined !** 

This Lodge had adopted a series of dramatic 
entertainments, and this brother, with many 
others who opposed the measure, had ab- 
sented himself from the Lodge meetings, and 
6* 



66 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

openly said he would not attend again so 
long as the dramatic paraphernalia remained. 
Now these brethren committed a great mis- 
take. Admitting that the dramatic policy 
was a bad one, for the sake of argument, they 
took a strange course to correct such policy. 
They should have remained regular attendants 
at the Lodge, and then, in due course of time, 
they might hope to correct, the evils, if any, 
which had crept into the Lodge. A few mem- 
bers, who are not in sympathy with some move- 
ment of the Lodge, absenting themselves from 
the Lodge meetings, or withdrawing from the 
Order and circulating the report that the Lodge 
is ruined, make very short work of the Lodge's 
destruction. 

The inside of an organization, and not the 
outside, is the place to purify and bring it up 
to a more correct standard of action. Many 
influential and good people have told us they 

would join our organization but for A , 

who belongs, whose conduct does not please, 
or for this action by the Lodge, which is dis- 
approved, when such should join and give their 
potent influence and example to correct such 
members and change the Lodge's action for 
the better. 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 67 

Again, Good Templars should never run 
down or speak disparagingly of the Lodge. 
We frequently have members tell us, on in- 
quiry as to the progress of the Lodge, i% Oh, it 
is going down ;" ;i It is no use trying to keep it 
up." And such remarks, if allowed to start, 
:;tly increase, until you soon have a 
public sentiment created that the Lodge is de- 
clining, and the members begin to neglect the 
meetings and their duties, and, finally, what 

is the expression of some faint-hearted, do- 
nothing member has become a living reality, 
and the Lodge is. in fact, going down rapidly. 

The members control public sentiment in 
reference to the Lodge, and if any one express 
the thought that the Lodge is going down, no 
one on the outside will stand up and arrest the 
spread of such infectious sentime:::s. 

There is a portion of our members — and all 
organizations have them — who never come in 
until it is manifest it is to be a success or be 
popular, and such are careful to abandon the 
ship the moment she springs a leak, for fear 
may be caught in her while sinking. 

How then can we expe: ssions to our 

membership when so many of our members 
are constantly predicting the downfall of the 



68 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

Lodge? No organization will ever sustain a 
higher reputation than its own friends give it, 
and many a Lodge has died from no other 
cause than its own members giving currency 
to the report that it was dying. 

Truly, selfishness predominates in the human 
heart, and to-day it may be placed at the head 
of those causes which result in the downfall of 
Good Templar Lodges. When will we learn 
to forget self in the great warfare for the dearest 
interests of humanity ? 




CHAPTER XI. 

DELINQUENT LODGES. — DAMAGING INFLU- 
ENCE OF GETTING IN ARREARS, BOTH 
UPON MEMBERS AND LODGES. 

IN the working of our Lodges we have a 
certain established financial basis for the 
support of the subordinate and Grand Lodge. 
In the Subordinate Lodge, a member delin- 
quent in paying the regular dues is after a 
stated time suspended from all privileges in the 
Order ; and the Grand Lodge virtually sus- 
pends the Subordinate Lodge delinquent in 
the payment of its tax, by withholding the 
current quarterly pass-word until such delin- 
quency is removed. 

Nothing is so essential to vitality and ac- 
tivity in Lodges as promptness on the part of 
the members in discharging all pecuniary obli- 
gations. Good Templars should always recol- 
lect that paying dues and assessments is as 
much a part of our obligation as abstaining 

69 



70 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

from intoxicants, and the vitality of the Lodge 
is dependent upon it. Though the Lodge 
treasury suffers when members allow them- 
selves to get in arrears, still the members them- 
selves are the greatest sufferers. Members 
should always pay dues when, under our 
rules, they are payable, and there will be a 
satisfaction in so doing which makes them of 
" good heart," and thus earnest in their work. 

A member in arrears is without the pass- 
word, and will sometimes make this an excuse 
for not attending a meeting ; and if the dues 
are allowed to accrue any length of time, it 
soon becomes inconvenient to pay, and he 
ceases to attend altogether. 

Attendance upon meetings is as essential to 
Good Te?nplar life as is breath to physical, 
and we have reason to tremble for the safety 
of any Good Templar who neglects the tem- 
perance associations afforded fry our Lodge 
meetings. We would not have occasion to 
mourn so many declensions from virtue in 
our membership, if the injunction, " you will 
be expected to attend all our meetings," was 
always respected. 

The payment of a few cents may seem a 
small affair to make the subject of our article, 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 7 1 

but could all our readers see the scores that 
have fallen back to their cups, whose fall was 
induced primarily by allowing themselves to 
get in arrears, they would cease to wonder 
that we make promptness in the payment of 
dues a sine gzca non in the Good Templar's 
standing. 

But, especially, see the disastrous effects of 
delinquency in Lodges which are in arrears 
to the Grand Lodge. There are Lodges that, 
claiming to have sent the dues in money by 
letter to the Grand Lodge, refused to pay it 
again ; and not receiving the pass-word, 
worked along under the old, term after term, 
until the members finally refused to pay their 
dues to the Lodge, and utter demoralization 
and dissolution ensued. 

We have a Lodge in mind (and it is a rep- 
resentation of many others) that occupied 
some six months in correspondence upon the 
subject of its account with the Grand Lodge, 
claiming to have sent a ten-dollar bill in a 
letter, which was never received, and posi- 
tively refusing to pay it again ; and after drag- 
ging along for another quarter, it died, having 
become completely demoralized. In this case, 
the Lodge Deputy who claimed to have sent 



72 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

the money was a lawyer who knew the rule 
of the Grand Lodge requiring all moneys to 
be sent in drafts, checks or postal orders, 
and who would not have remitted money in 
that manner for a client without making it up 
in case of a loss ; and yet he allows a Lodge to 
go down, and a place to lose the salutary in- 
fluence of its workings, because, forsooth, he 
says it has been sent once, and he will not 
send it again, and insists upon the Grand Lodge 
sending the pass-word, and defiantly takes the 
stand, " that the Lodge will pay no more dues 
to the Grand Lodge until the pass-word is 
sent." 

As well might a man order some flannels 
for his family's winter wardrobe, sending the 
money in a letter to the merchant, and because 
the goods are not sent, the money not having 
been received, declare that he will not fur- 
nish any more money to buy flannels, and the 
tradesman must send those he has once paid 
for if he has any, and persist in such a course 
until his shivering children freeze from the 
chilling blasts of winter. 

It is useless for the Subordinate Lodge to 
violate the laws of the Grand Lodge in remit- 
ting money, and then ask the Grand Secretary 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER* 73 

to balance the account, when the Grand Of- 
ficers have no discretion but to execute the 
laws as made by the Grand Lodge. 

Lodges ought to recollect that they are vio- 
lating their own laws ; for the Grand Lodge 
is made up of the Subordinate Lodges, and 
the laws have been made by the represen- 
tatives of the Subordinate Lodges, in Grand 
Lodge assembled, for the preservation of the 
Grand Lodge and its treasury, and each Lodge 
is interested in the preservation of these laws 
intact. 

It is like a man making a contract to pay a 
hundred dollars, and then, upon sending a one- 
hundred-dollar bill by post, insist that the 
contract was performed, and demand the bal- 
ancing of the account. 

Some of our Lodges are slow in paying dues 
to the Grand Lodge because they have not 
had lecturers sent them, and act as though they 
must receive back in lectures all they pay to 
the Grand Lodge. 

It is true, the Grand Lodge lecturers now 
have to visit old Lodges, and three-fourths of 
our entire lecture fund is expended in keeping 
alive old Lodges. This is a great perversion 
of the fund. In my judgment, Lodges ought 
7 



74 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

to pay this fund to a missionary to occupy new 
ground ; and in the language of Mrs. Dr. 
French, of Philadelphia, at Grand Lodge, 
whose words should be made historic among 
Good Templars, " When a Lodge is put in 
working order it ought to be able to keep itself 
in activity, and contribute something toward 
extending our Order." Our lecture fund ought 
not to be spent in old Lodges. There is not a 
Lodge in the State but has the elements of 
activity and success, if it would develop these 
elements ; which it will not do as long as it 
cherishes this feeling of dependence upon the 
lecture fund to keep it in breathing condition. 

Recollect, Lodges, that if you are not re- 
ceiving the benefit of the money you pay, some 
one is, and go on paying it cheerfully and lib- 
erally, never doubting the words, " Cast thy 
bread upon the waters, and it shall be returned 
to thee after many days." 

Some Lodges labor under the impression 
that if dues are paid to the Lodge Deputy, 
such payment releases the Lodge. This is an 
error. Under our system, each Lodge is per- 
mitted to recommend a member for this posi- 
tion, and the G. W. C. T. commissions the 
member so recommended. Thus, it is ex- 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 75 

pected the Lodge will make a selection of this 
officer, with direct reference to the fact that he 
is to act as the agent of the Lodge in the trans- 
mission of money due the Grand Lodge, and 
exercise such care and caution as generally 
characterize individuals in the appointment 
of agents for the discharge of important trusts. 
In so far as the Lodge Deputy has a general 
oversight of the workings of the Lodge, it is 
a very important position ; and as the efficiency 
of the Lodge depends so much upon its finan- 
cial credit, and the Lodge Deputy is generally 
responsible for all delinquencies in this par- 
ticular, no office in the gift of the Order ex- 
ceeds it in importance. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OUR UNWRITTEN WORK. ITS IMPORTANCE, 

USE, DISUSE AND ABUSE. 

THIS subject is not taken up thus late in 
our series of articles upon the " Good of 
the Order" because deemed of less importance 
than others ; though, judging from the indiffer- 
ence which many of our members manifest in 
reference to it, we would suppose the unwritten 
work was appended to our organization as lace 
to a lady's collar — merely as an ornament, to be 
worn or not, as may suit the caprice or con- 
venience of the member. 

Now it is believed that our signs, pass-words 
and grips would impart a real vitality to our 
Order if they were correctly and forcibly used. 
The most perfect system of operations becomes 
weak and inefficient when not well adminis- 
tered. The manner in which our signals, signs, 
etc., are given in some Lodges creates the im- 
pression that it is a matter of indifference how 
they are given, if given at all. What we un- 
76 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 77 

derstand by giving our signs forcibly is to give 
them as though our heart was in them — as 
though we felt them just as important as any 
part of our work. Some of our members act 
as though they were ashamed to give our 
signs, and many, alas ! act as though they were 
ashamed of being Good Templars, and on 
being asked whether they belong to the Order, 
on some occasions hesitate, and reply stammer- 
ingly, " Well— yes— I did ;" " Well, I joined it 
once, I believe; I don't know much about them 
though ;" or, " Well, I suppose I do belong," — 
all in a low, hesitating, suppressed tone. As 
such are a detriment to our cause, so this faint- 
hearted, tip-of-the-flnger style of going through 
with our unwritten work is surely disastrous. 
As in the working of machinery, if a single 
piece, however insignificant, be imperfect, the 
whole motion is marred, so in our organiza- 
tion, a failure to use or the incorrect use of any 
part of our work detracts from the beauty and 
efficiency of the whole. Take our signs of 
recognition, for instance, which are designed 
as tests to ascertain beyond a doubt whether a 
person claiming to be a Good Templar is really 
such or not ; of course, under ordinary circum- 
stances, persons who are not dumb can ascer- 
7* 



78 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

tain this without the aid of signs, but circum- 
stances will arise when it becomes desirable 
and quite necessary to apply the tests common 
to our Order, and our signs cease to be any 
test when incorrectly given, for any impostor 
could pick up enough of our work to go through 
with them as creditably as two-thirds of our 
membership. 

The grip, or Good Templar's shake of the 
hand, is seldom employed, though if deemed 
of sufficient importance to be made a part of 
our work, it certainly ought to be observed. 
There is no part of our unwritten work that is 
more significant and which may be rendered 
more prolific of real vitality to our Order. If 
when we take by the hand a young lad who 
belongs with us we give him the grip, we signify 
by the act that we fellowship with him in his 
determination to grow up a total abstainer, and 
that our prayers are for him that he may ever 
have strength to resist the temptations to which 
youth are ever exposed. We cannot estimate 
the potent influence of one such act, by those 
matured in life, upon the young. It may be a 
tower of strength. To him who has formerly 
been addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks, 
we extend our hand in fraternal greeting, and, 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 79 

as we gently and heartily give him the grip, we 
manifest our sympathy with him in his terrible 
struggle to overcome the power of his appetite, 
and show him that he has the prayers of the 
good and the true that he may successfully 
fight this hand-to-hand contest with the fell 
destroyer, Rum. 

It may be he has not for years, if ever be- 
fore, felt the gentle pressure of a female hand, 
or heard her soft, persuasive, sympathetic 
voice ; and as some kind sister greets him with 
the Good Templar's shake of the hand he feels 
stronger for the battle that is before him. 

A W. C. T. whom I installed in one of our 
Lodges, in a brief speech upon assuming the 
duties of the position, after relating that the 
Good Templars had, two years before, picked 
him up from the very cess-pool of vice and 
iniquity and restored him to his family, friends 
and society, said that he felt that under God 
he owed all that he was to the act of a sister 
of that Lodge the morning after his initiation. 

He said, early the next morning, after be- 
coming a member of the Order, as he was 
going to a shop on an errand, and passing by 
the dram-shop where he had been accustomed 
to go for his morning dram, the inclination to 



80 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

enter was so strong that he forgot all the scenes 
of the night previous, when he promised to ab- 
stain from all that intoxicates for life, and was 
on the point of entering when a sister of the 
Lodge came along from an opposite direction, 
and instead of passing by, as most would have 
done under like circumstances, she recognized 
him, and approaching, took his hand and said, 
" I am so glad, brother (calling him by name), 
that you joined our Lodge last night, and I 
pray God that you may have strength to keep 
your obligation ;" and she gave him the Good 
Templar's grip so earnestly that, novice as he 
was in our organization, he recognized it, and 
from that time he had no further desire to 
enter that haunt of vice, and he passed on, 
strengthened by the prayer and sympathy of 
that noble sister, and from that time he had 
kept his pledge with all due fidelity. 

We hope none of our members will forget 
that the grip may be made an efficient means 
of strengthening the young in the formation of 
total abstinence principles as well as of rescuing 
the inebriate from the grasp of the fell de- 
stroyer. Let us ever use it, and try to raise the 
standard of administering the unwritten work 
in all our Lodges 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE GOOD TEMPLARS' OBLIGATION. — WHAT 

IT MEANS. GOOD TEMPLARS SHOULD NOT 

FREQUENT DRAM-SHOPS. 

WHEN a person assumes the Good Tem- 
plars' obligation he has taken upon 
himself weighty responsibilities. Not only must 
he practice personal abstinence, but the safety 
of others and the reputation and vitality of the 
Lodge which he joins are committed to his 
care. Few Good Templars fall but some one 
has neglected duty, and no Lodge ceases to 
exist — and many of our Lodges seem to die 
very easily — but some of the members have 
been neglectful of trusts resting upon them. 
That part of our obligation requiring us to do 
all in our power to advance the cause of Tem- 
perance is just as binding as that requiring 
personal abstinence from intoxicants. In sup- 
porting this clause of our obligation the ex- 
ample of our members becomes potent. 

81 



82 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

A want of appreciation of the Good Tem- 
plars' obligation seems to be very general. 
Many of our good brothers frequent the bar- 
room and saloon, enjoying the social influence 
and participating in the jokes and witticisms 
of the place, unwittingly and inadvertently 
bringing disrepute upon our organization and 
the cause. 

Such need not be surprised if it be reported 
of them that they have been violating their 
obligation. If I frequent places where intoxi- 
cating drinks are sold, in my own place of 
residence, I must expect such unfavorable 
rumors will be current ; for no Good Templar 
has a right voluntarily to be in such places, 
participating in the contaminating influences 
incident to the dram-shop. Hotels and saloons 
are not licensed or kept for the accommodation 
of their own citizens. Home is the place for 
all of us, and no necessity can arise to justify 
us in lounging about these haunts of vice and 
dissipation. When traveling we are justified 
in stopping at public-houses, even though in- 
toxicating drinks may be sold, because it is ex- 
pected that we will, and known that we must, 
stop at some house of entertainment ; and in 
most localities all public-houses sell liquors. 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 83 

We teach more by example than theory. "If 
a man is known by the company he keeps," 
then surely some of our Good Templars can- 
not expect to enjoy a very high reputation for 
consistent temperance principles. 

In a certain place I heard it currently re- 
ported that some of the Good Templar young 
men were in the habit of calling at the hotel- 
bar and taking a drink, and then proceeding 
to the Lodge meeting. Now, how much truth 
there may have been in this statement of 
Madam Rumor I cannot say, but I did learn 
that our brothers in that Lodge were in the 
habit of calling at that bar-room and sitting, 
enjoying a social chat and possibly a cigar, 
and then proceeding to the Lodge meeting. 
Xow I was not surprised at the currency of 
this report, and I would affectionately urge 
upon all brothers who read this article to shun 
the associations of the bar and club-room, and 
any place which is contaminated by the cor- 
rupting influences of strong drink. If busi- 
ness unavoidably calls you to such places, go 
and transact it, and then leave as you would 
flee from a den of asps, or the poisoned 
miasma of some loathsome disease. Leave as 
you would escape from the snare of the great 



84 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

evil spirit who is personified in alcoholic 
liquors, and whose grand mission-ground is 
the dram-shop. Flee, O ye young men, for 
your moral lives, which are in imminent peril 
from the time you first begin to breathe the 
impurities that always surround intoxicating 
beverages. Enter not voluntarily into such 
places, for your own safety and on account of 
your example to others. The proper construc- 
tion of our obligation forbids it ; and the wel- 
fare of our brothers who are struggling to gain 
the mastery over appetite, who cannot with 
any safety be found in such places, demands 
that all of us should scrupulously avoid them. 
If we throw around our weak brothers in- 
fluences that will make them strong and vig- 
orous in their warfare with the tyrant appetite, 
then we must not ourselves be found in any 
place, nor with any associations, where the 
weakest cannot safely enter. If we would 
hope to make the drinking usages of society 
unpopular and disreputable, then we must 
show in our example that we despise all places 
where intoxicating drinks are sold or drunk as 
a beverage. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES OF 
DEPUTIES. 

NO officers seem to have so much difficulty 
in discharging their duties without fric- 
tion in the Lodge as our Lodge Deputies. 
This is not surprising, in view of the imperfect 
understanding of the rights, privileges and du- 
ties of Deputies. 

The following is a letter written in answer 
to certain inquiries, and is published here as 
covering points of interest and importance to 
all Good Templars : 

Your first inquiry is this; " In time of dis- 
order or unconstitutional proceedings, has the 
Lodge Deputy the right, without appeal, to 
demand the chair or adjourn the meeting?" 
I answer, only in cases of unconstitutional 
proceedings, not merely disorderly. 

In our Order the W. C. T. is the presiding 
8 85 



86 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

officer, and entitled to occupy the chair ; and 
neither the G. W. C. T. nor any Deputy has 
any right to take the chair unceremoniously, 
without being invited, or to demand the chair 
of the W. C. T. merely because such G. W. 
C. T. or Deputy may think the Lodge is 
working " disorderly" 

The decision giving this right to a Deputy 
is intended to cover cases of clear violation of 
the Constitution, and extreme cases only ; such 
as this, for instance : Suppose A has been bal- 
loted for by a Lodge, and five members, deem- 
ing such applicant unworthy of membership 
and knowing that the admission of such person 
will result in great injury, if not disaster, to the 
Lodge, vote against such applicant. The W. 
C. T., however, notwithstanding such rejec- 
tion, orders the Lodge to proceed to the initia- 
tion of A, and directs the proper officers to go 
to the ante-room and discharge their duties. 

Here is a case of such plain infraction of 
the Constitution as to admit of no doubt or 
dispute, and such an extreme case as requires 
the immediate and absolute interference of the 
Deputy to arrest all further proceedings, which 
he may do by demanding the Chair peremptor- 
ily ; or, if that is refused him, by declaring the 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. b/ 

Lodge adjourned. In this case it would not 
do to wait for redress in the usual way of ap- 
peal, for in twenty minutes the mischief would 
be irreparably done. 

Second question : "In all questions of doubt 
or dispute, has the Lodge Deputy the right to 
decide (whether appealed to or not) ? and in 
case he gives a decision, should not the deci- 
sion be binding until reversed by a higher au- 
thority?" 

Answer : This question, in my judgment, is 
fully answered in section 2d, page 120, 7th edi- 
tion of the Digest and remarks, and section 
5th, page 121 ; and there is no conflict be- 
tween the two sections, as may seem to the 
casual reader of the Digest. The Lodge 
Deputy may decide when not appealed to, or 
when questions are not submitted to him by 
the W. C. T. or the Lodge, only when the 
Lodge is working unconstitutionally \ or not 
in confor?nity ivitJi our rules and usages, 
written or unwritten {rules and usages being 
those of general application, like the signs or 
ritual ceremony). 

In ordinary cases of doubt or dispute, like 
a point of order raised during a session of 
the Lodge, or some member making a motion 



88 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

or offering a paper when not in order, the 
Lodge Deputy or G. W. C. T. has no more 
business to interfere, unsolicited, than any 
other member. In our Order there are cer- 
tain laws, rules and usages which are common 
to all, such as the unwritten work, ritualistic 
ceremonies and Constitution, and in well-de- 
fined decisions in the Digest, binding on the 
whole Order ; and these it is the duty of the 
G. W. C. T. and his deputies to see observed, 
whether the Lodge or any member of the 
Lodge submits questions for decisions, or ap- 
peals to him on them, or not ; but in the ob- 
servance of the by-laws of a Lodge, rules of 
order, order of business, and other matters 
which are left to each Lodge to regulate for 
itself, neither that officer nor his deputies 
should interfere peremptorily, or decide ques- 
tions pertaining thereto, without being invited 
by the Chair for said purpose, or having such 
disputed questions submitted to them. 

A large proportion of the "doubts" and 
" disputes" in our Lodges arise from questions 
of order or local government, which the Grand 
Lodge has no interest in, further than the final 
results of these disputes may lead to injury, if 
not disaster, to the Lodge ; and further than 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 89 

this it is a matter of indifference to the Grand 
Lodge, and its officers representing it, how any 
of these questions are decided. 

As a matter of course, if not decided satis- 
factorily, any member can appeal, when the 
Deputy and the G. W. C. T., or one of them, 
will have the privilege of adjudicating the case 
as shall appear legal and wise ; so that if the 
final results of these " disputes" are disastrous 
to the Lodge, it will not be because the Deputy 
has not had the privilege of displaying his 
wisdom and discretion in averting such an 
issue. 

Section 5th, page 121, provides, in general 
terms, how all matters of doubt, in business 
form, law or usage, shall be adjudicated ; 
while the remarks under section 2, page 130 
(for they are the remarks of G. W. C. T. 
Chase, which have been made by law in 
Pennsylvania, and not the decisions of Cali- 
fornia, Wisconsin or New Hampshire), provide 
that in certain cases the Deputy is not obliged 
to wait until some one appeals to him or sub- 
mits questions to him for decision ; for he 
might never have the opportunity to correct a 
wrong if so required. 

In the decision of section 2d, page 120, the 
8* 



90 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

reasonable construction of "informality" is, 
that it relates to the unwritten work and ritu- 
alistic forms, and that "instruction" relates 
to the Deputy's correction of such errors in 
our forms and ceremonies as are of a general 
nature. 

My answer to the last clause of your second 
question is, that in case a Deputy gives a de- 
cision, it is binding until reversed by higher 
authority, even though given under circum- 
stances when he had no right to interfere, or 
no right to decide, or though the decision is 
wrong in itself, unless such decision comes 
within the scope of remarks by P. R. W. G. 
T. Chase, as found under section 5th, page 
261, 7th edition of the Digest; nor can the 
Lodge criticise it and declare it by vote to be 
wrong. The Lodge or any member can ap- 
peal. 

But a few weeks since a case substantially 
this occurred : At a session of a Lodge the 
Lodge Deputy took the chair without any 
right to do so, and one member at first refused 
to recognize him as the W. C. T., or presiding 
officer of the Lodge. This was an error. The 
Lodge Deputy is made, by virtue of his com- 
mission, the representative of the Grand Lodge, 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 91 

and is the higJiest authority in the Lodge, in 
the absence of the G. W. C. T. ; and when he 
decides a question, or takes the chair, frimd 
facie he is correct and is de facto the presid- 
ing officer, if not de jure; and it is the duty 
of members to recognize him as such, availing 
themselves of the door of appeal which ever 
opens to such as seek redress. Any other 
course must result in rebellion or anarchy. 

Section 11, page 122, 7th edition of Digest 
(p. 14th, s. 14), having been adopted prior to 
the remarks under section 2, page 120 (p. 
15th, s. 23), must be governed by the latter if 
there is any conflict. 

Seemingly there may be some discrepancy, 
but really there is none. Section 1 1 starts out 
with the general statement of the manner in 
which questions are decided, followed by an 
affirmation of the remarks under section 2, 
that the Deputy may, and it is his duty to tell 
the Lodge when about to take illegal action 
(and informing the Lodge of any proposed 
illegal action is tantamount to making a de- 
cision), and then prescribe what shall be done 
in case the Lodge does not heed the counsel 
or obey the decision of the Deputy. 

Of course, in any case where a Lodge is 



92 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

working u illegally" and, despite the interfer- 
ence of the Deputy, persists in pursuing its 
illegal course, the only thing the Deputy 
can do is that pointed out in the last clause 
of section n, unless it is one of those ex- 
treme cases of violation of the constitution al- 
ready mentioned in the first part of this letter, 
as the power of taking away Charters and 
punishing Subordinate Lodges is vested only 
in the Executive Committee. 

It is hoped our Deputies will recollect that, 
because they are clothed with a little brief au- 
thority, they are not therefore to forget the 
common courtesies of life, and undertake to 
reign over the Lodges with a sway as absolute 
as that exercised by the Czar of Russia over 
his subjects. 

The W. C. T. has been chosen presiding 
officer of the Lodge, and is made responsible 
for its workings ; and Deputies should always 
appreciate and acknowledge the authority of 
such officer, and yield a cheerful and deferen- 
tial compliance to all his orders and decisions, 
only interposing his own higher power and 
authority when invited to do so by the W. C. 
T. or Lodge, unless under circumstances abso- 
lutely requiring it. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

THE following two letters, originally ap- 
pearing in the Keystone Good Templar, 
cover many important points which very 
properly may be treated under the head se- 
lected for this book. We give them by per- 
mission. 

WHAT SHALL WE DO? 

No Matter Where, Pa., \ 
January, 1870. J 

Sister Wright : From your long experience 

in the cause of Temperance, and especially in 

the Order of Good Templars, you will please 

excuse the liberty I take in this epistle, as our 

Lodge has appointed me a committee to make 

a statement of facts and circumstances, and 

ask your advice in the premises. Our Lodge, 

No. — , was organized, as you are aware, 

several years ago ; our beginning was small, 

93 



94 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

we were composed of an earnest, honest, 
simple-minded band of men and women, and 
our only object was to do good, and, if possi- 
ble, aid in the extension of the principles of 
our Order. For many months peace, harmony 
and good order prevailed ; our progress was 
slow, but very satisfactory, and we had been 
the means of reforming upward of twenty 
persons previously very intemperate, and were 
rapidly gaining the confidence, respect and ap- 
proval of the public at large, and without this 
no association need expect to succeed. 

Unfortunately for us, at this time a family 
with the significant name of Croaker came 
into our town. I am uncertain as to where 
they came from, but that of course was none 
of our business. They are a large family ; 
there is old man Croaker, old lady Croaker, 
and five young men Croakers, and three young 
lady Croakers. They seemed to be respecta- 
ble people, and professed to be religious, and 

they all joined the Church, the largest 

and most wealthy church in town. Some of 
our friends deemed it important to secure the 
Croakers with us as Good Templars, and after 
considerable exertion, we succeeded in having 
the entire family join our Lodge, and great 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. % 

were our rejoicings in view of so large an ac- 
cession of members. But, alas ! our rejoi- 
cings were short-lived. The Croakers began to 
give us trouble in the Lodge and trouble in 
the church from the start. Old man Croaker 
seemed possessed of the idea that it was a 
matter of surprise how the church and the 
Good Templars had attained their present 
great proportions without the aid of the 
Croakers ! Old Mr. Croaker evinced a great 
desire to be elected to a position in the church 
and in the Lodge ; and he not only sought po- 
sition for himself, but likewise for old lady 
Croaker and the whole family compact ; and 
our first difficulty occurred in consequence of 
the old gent failing to be elected presiding 
officer of the Lodge and deacon in the church. 
Old lady Croaker declared that the church 
was all going to ruin, and that the Lodge was 
committing suicide ! Our beloved pastor, who 
has ministered to us in holy things for many 
years without any dissatisfaction, they dis- 
covered was not the man for the times or the 
place ; and his excellent wife, too, they found 
fault with on frivolous pretences ; and in short 
they sowed a great deal of discord among the 
brethren and sisters, causing us all much pain. 



g6 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

But the principal evil done by the Croakers 
has been in our Lodge. Nothing has been 
done to suit them since the old gent was de- 
feated for office of W. C. T. They not only 
seem and are miserable themselves, but they 
seek to make all around them uncomfortable. 
Every movement of a wise and liberal nature 
they oppose. We tried to get up a club of 
twenty-five additional subscribers for the Key- 
stone Good Templar, and had it not been 
for the Croakers we would have succeeded. 
They opposed it strongly. Old Croaker said 
he was certain Mr. L. E. Wright was not the 
right man to have control of such a paper. 
He is just that ignorant, and we let him alone 
in his ignorance. If he calls on you, and asks 
to see Mr. Wright, he will perhaps discover 
his error. Old Lady Croaker finds fault with 
the Keystone Good Templar because it 
has no letters in it from Horace Greeley or 
George F. Train. She says Mr. Greeley and 
Mr. Train are the wisest men in all America, 
and any paper they don't write for is not up 
to the age ! 

The Lodge attempted to raise something for 
the German tract fund, but the Croakers in 
solid phalanx opposed it, and we were under 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 97 

the mortification of standing alone in the good 
work. Old Brother Croaker says he means to 
go to the next Grand Lodge to set the Order 
right on various points. He thinks he can 
write a Ritual far superior to ours, and he in- 
tends to move the remodelling of all our 
forms, laws and work. He says we are all 
going to smash up if his advice is not taken. 
And so we are in constant hot water with this 
family. What shall we do with them? Is 
there any way in which we can become free 
from their baleful influence ? I could say much 
more, but have said enough. I am sure no 
Lodge is crossed and crushed as is our Lodge. 

When, on suggestion of Brother Chase, our 
noble leader, the Lodges of the State were 
taking up collections in aid of the "Lecture 
Fund," the Croakers had much to say in oppo- 
sition, and did all they could to prevent those 
who were willing to donate a small amount. 

Lady Croaker finds fault with some of our 
lecturers because they do not surpass Gough 
in eloquence and ability ; and old Mr. Croaker 
is of opinion that the Grand Lodge should 
employ him [Croaker] as a lecturer, and dis- 
charge Roberts, Davidson, Boyce, Brosius and 
Hartman ! Brother Croaker says this would 
9 



9$ THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

place the Order at once on a safe financial 
basis. 

The Croakers think, in short, that the Order 
is all going to the wall, and they do their best 
to hinder our progress, but still they continue 
with us, and seem in no way likely to leave 
the Lodge until they have accomplished its 
destruction. They have already been the 
means of disgusting away from our meetings 
many who were very faithful until the 
Croakers came among us. 

Sister Wright, what do you advise ? I write 
facts, painful facts ; what remedy do you ad- 
vise ? 

Yours, in F., H. and C, 

Many Sufferers. 

No Matter Where, Pa., March 31, 1870. 
Dear Sister Wright: When I wrote you 
some time since giving account of the condi- 
tion of our Lodge, and explaining the princi- 
pal source of difficulty experienced by us, and 
asking your advice as to the course we should 
best adopt, I had little idea that my letter 
would be the humble means of bringing about 
a result that we have long desired. I have 
often heard of the influence of the newspaper, 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 99 

and verily, The Keystone Good Templar, 
by the publication of that one simple letter, has 
done for our Lodge what the united energies 
and efforts of our best members could not ac- 
complish. We really rejoice at our deliver- 
ance. 

As I stated in my former letter, the Croaker 
family, father and mother, sons and daugh- 
ters, were the principal hindrances to that 
peace and harmony and prosperity that at- 
tended our Lodge before the Croakers became 
members. They seemed to care for no one 
but themselves, and, unless they could carry all 
their points and plans, were at swords' points 
with all the Lodge, keeping us continually in 
a very unhealthy condition of irritation and 
excitement. Nothing met their approval that 
they did not introduce, and no matter how 
good the proposition, the Croakers would in 
general vote solid against its adoption, unless 
their permission to introduce the motion was 
first privately secured. Composed as human 
nature is in our region, this style of thing 
would not go down, and the results were as 
stated in a former letter. We had confusion, 
discord and disturbance. 

The week after my letter appeared in The 



IOO THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

Good Templar, the entire family of Croakers 
came to the Lodge meeting, and we all could 
see that there were squalls ahead. At the 
proper time for the introduction of "new busi- 
ness," old man Croaker arose, and addressing 
the W. C. T., said he had some important 
business to introduce ; and pulling out The 
Keystone Good Templar containing my 
letter, he commenced reading, and read it 
through. On conclusion of reading he said, 
" W. C. T., I consider that letter a direct 
insult to me and my family, who are in 
membership with this Lodge, and I call on 
this Lodge to proceed at once to expel the 
writer of that letter, as we are determined 
not to remain in fellowship with any one who 
can write such statements in reference to us." 
When I heard this, J began to quake and 
tremble lest I should be. sacrificed to appease 
the wrath of the family compact. But I was 
soon relieved by the W. C. T. inquiring of 
Mr. Croaker if he wished to bring a charge 
against the writer of the letter, and if he was 
prepared to give the name of the author. 
Then old man Croaker said he had written to 
Mr. L. E. Wright, demanding the name of 
the writer of the letter, and that gentleman 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. IOI 

had sent him back a short and very unsatisfac- 
tory reply, utterly refusing to give the name. 
But said he, Croaker, " / know who wrote 

the letter : it was no one else than Elder ," 

naming our excellent pastor, and the chaplain 
of our Lodge, who was present. This at once 
relieved my fears, as I saw the enemy was on 

the wrong scent entirely. Elder at once 

arose and in his usually mild and kindly 
manner stated that he was not the writer of the 
letter, neither did he know who w r rote it. This 
was a stunner, and it took the compact back 
considerably, the W. C. T., in the mean time, 
intimating that Mr. Croaker was out of order. 
Just here old lady Croaker arose, and in a 

towering rage said: "If Elder didn't 

write it, then it was written by Bro. ," 

naming an excellent member of much ability 
with the pen, one of the class leaders in the M. 

E. Church. Brother is somewhat quick 

of temper, and he at once arose and denied the 
authorship, but added, " If I was the writer of 
that letter, I would not be ashamed of it ; for 
I consider it was all true and all called for." 
At this there was some stamping of feet, which 
the W. C. T. at once checked ; when Croaker's 
eldest daughter got up and said in a sharp key, 
9 * 



102 THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 

" Father, let's go ! I wouldn't stay here an- 
other minute !" Then the whole tribe arose 

and made for the door, but Jake , who 

acted as W. I. G., would not allow them to 
pass, as they were somewhat informal and 
irregular in movement. Then the old man 
turned and said : " We wish to dissolve all 
connection with this Lodge, and desire to 
withdraw from it." The W. C. T. then said : 
"What is the pleasure of the Lodge?" A 
brother moved that the request be at once 
granted if the parties were clear of books 
of F. S. ; and thus we were delivered of the 
Croaker incubus. As they descended the 

stairs, Brother , the class leader, arose 

and proposed that we sing " Praise God from 
whom all blessings flow," etc., which was 
done with no ordinary energy, and we now 
anticipate peace and prosperity again. 

I would add that since that letter appeared, 
The Keystone Good Templar is looked 
upon as our deliverer, and we are preparing 
to send you a club of at least thirty additional 
names. Many thanks for what you have done 
for us. We are once more a united, happy 
band of workers, with no disturbing elements. 
We have been taught wisdom by the Croakers, 



THE GOOD OF THE ORDER. 103 

and let young Lodges elsewhere learn a lesson 
by what we have suffered. Our mistake was 
in ever admitting such disputatious, conceited, 
proud creatures into our Lodge. Because 
they appeared respectable we thought them 
suitable persons to receive. It will always be 
found that vain and proud people out of a 
Lodge will exhibit their pride and vanity to a 
tenfold degree in the circumscribed limits of 
our little Lodge-rooms. We should aim to 
secure the co-operation of the wise, the good, 
the virtuous, the humble, the modest and the 
unpretending. Such members are a power ; 
but the presence of the elements of self-seekmg 
or sham, hollow pride and conceit, only act as 
poisons and irritants. Take our Lodges in the 
rural districts, for instance, where the honest, 
industrious and intelligent farmers and the 
members of their households are largely repre- 
sented among the members, and common sense 
prevails, how pleasant the meetings, how pleas- 
ing the results ! How good and how pleasant 
the sight where brethren dwell together in 
unity ! Let us one and all work for this result. 
Yours in F., H. and C. 



•XTTST OUT. 

THE GOOD TEMPLAR'S DIGEST. 

Published by authority of the R. W. G. Lodge 
of North America. 

By S. B. CHASE, P. R. W. G. T. 



SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED A.ND ENLARGED. 



Being an entire revision of the work, and the supple- 
ments incorporated in the body of the work, and contain- 
ing many hundreds of new decisions which have never be- 
fore appeared in any accessible form. Each Lodge and 
Deputy should have a copy of the new edition, even 
though in possession of the old work. 

Price, $1.35 a copy, when sent by mail. Liberal dis- 
count by the dozen or hundred. 

For sale by S. B. Chase, Great Bend Village, Pa., and 
by G. W. Secretaries generally. Orders by mail promptly 
attended to. 

Wliat is said of the New Edition of the Digest, in Letters 
jiist received* 

" I like the new Digest very, very much. I am disposing of them 
rapidly. I hope to send you another order soon." 

Mrs. ADA GREGG, G. Sec, W. Va. 

" We like The Digest much." 

Rev. H. P. CUSHING, G. W. S., Vt. 

" This edition is certainly far superior to any former edition. I 
have not had time to examine it, but a glance is sufficient to show that 
fact." J. NORWOOD CLARK, G. W. S., Iowa. 

" I acknowlege receipt of the last edition of the Digest, and have 
read it through. It is complete and indispensable." 

JAMES C. BOYCE, Esq., Oil City, Pa. 

"We have examined the work, and pronounce it complete. With 
this work in hand, any one of ordinary mind can at once point out the 
law on any and all subjects. Every member of the order should have 
a copy." — Messenger, Canada. 

" It is an invaluable book and should be studied by every member 
of our order." C. W. WASHBURN, Fla. 



